CarnationFM: A Decentralized Radio Playing Songs With Encrypted Hidden Messages

Berlin, Germany: As a seasoned crypto investor and privacy advocate, I’ve seen my fair share of projects that promise to revolutionize the way we communicate and protect our data. But CarnationFM stands out from the crowd with its unique approach to decentralized messaging through music.

At EthBerlin 2024 in Berlin, Germany, a radio station focused on music with a hidden message function has made its debut. Called CarnationFM, this innovative project was brought to life by a team of six individuals – five hackers and one mentor. Their goal was to develop a protective, decentralized, and encrypted communication method that ensures confidentiality while maintaining anonymity. Through the medium of music, users can send and receive secret messages.

The award-winning project at EthBerlin 2024 is centered around developing practical applications with a strong emphasis on privacy consideration, following the Alexey Perstev sentence in May. Alexey Perstev, a Tornado Cash co-founder, received a 64-month prison term.

The ruling caused shockwaves through the decentralized community as it implied that a programmer could be held liable for all consequences of the code they create. In this case, Perstev was held accountable since his open-source mixer Tornado.cash was exploited by North Korea’s notorious Lazarus group to launder vast amounts of cryptocurrency.

Inspired by a historical revolution

The name CarnationFM: “Broadcast for a liberated future” carries a cultural historical undertone.

Fifty years ago, Portugal’s Carnation Revolution brought an end to Europe‘s longest-standing dictatorship. This transformation began as a military coup but soon morphed into a widespread popular uprising. During this time, Portugal started the process of decolonizing its territories. The carnation became the revolution’s emblematic symbol. As tensions eased and violence lessened, civilians honored the revolution by placing carnations in soldiers’ gun barrels and on their uniforms – a testament to the minimal resistance met during this peaceful transition of power.

“The revolution began when two distinct songs were aired on the radio: The first was played in the evening on April 24, 1974, signaling the start, and the second was broadcast at 12:20 am on April 25, solidifying the revolution by inciting occupations of key locations.” The name “carnation” was chosen for this reason by MF, one of the co-founders requesting pseudonyms.

How it works

The music distribution is decentralized as it relies on Swarm, a decentralized Ethereum-based storage system, for its broadcasting function.

“Only those with the correct decryption key are able to view the hidden message within the downloaded music or song,” MF explained.

The GitHub-accessible methodology necessitates sending the key to the recipient prior to delivery, along with the scheduled playtime for the song. As expressed by MF, this system employs a radio as a medium for sharing and uploading music. However, these music files are encrypted, enabling concealment of messages up to a quarter megabyte each minute.

What’s next

The team behind the product is eager to advance its development but is constrained by available resources and welcomes external assistance. In their ongoing exploration, they’re investigating how to encrypt sound waves using encryption techniques similar to those used for data. This could potentially lead to sharing more detailed information through Morse code without requiring a download. Additionally, they are considering extending this concept to videos that can be uploaded on YouTube or broadcast on television.